Written and edited by Norm Scott:
EDUCATE! ORGANIZE!! MOBILIZE!!!
Three pillars of The Resistance – providing information on current ed issues, organizing activities around fighting for public education in NYC and beyond and exposing the motives behind the education deformers. We link up with bands of resisters. Nothing will change unless WE ALL GET INVOLVED IN THE STRUGGLE!

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

May 6, 2010 -- Denver Post... AFT's Randi Weingarten weighs inWednesday’s endorsement of Senate Bill 191 by the American Federation of Teachers did not phase many in Colorado but caused quite a stir around the nation.

Nevertheless, AFT President Randi Weingarten said her organization’s support of the bill shouldn’t come as a surprise.In January, Weingarten made a speech urging her 1.4 million members to accept a form of teacher evaluation that takes student achievement into account.

Back in 2010, Randi Weingarten, apparently to the surprise of the world -- but not to us here in NYC and other cities on her sellout tour (Newark, Detroit) -- endorsed the Colorado teacher evaluation plan.

Now skip ahead to today's Edweek article with this little nugget:all of Colorado’s 238 charter schools waived out of the system.

Read this and then go back and read the full article on Randi's endorsement plus these other links to Randi back in 2010. You won't hear a peep of mea culpa from our Unity leaders.

How We Got Colorado's Teacher-Evaluation Reform Wrong

Colorado's missteps on teacher evaluation is a cautionary tale for other states

Back in May 2010, hundreds of the nation’s education foundation,
policy, and practice elites were gathered for the NewSchools Venture
Fund meeting in Washington to celebrate and learn from the most recent
education reform policy victories in my home state of Colorado and
across the country.

The opening speeches highlighted the recent passage of Colorado
Senate Bill 10-191—a dramatic law which required that 50 percent of a
teacher evaluation be based upon student academic growth. This offered a
bold new vision for how teachers would be evaluated and whether they would gain or lose tenure based on the merits of their impact on student achievement.

Colorado would be one of several "ground zeros" for reforming teacher evaluation
in the country. Many, including myself, thought these new state
policies would allow our best teachers to shine. They would finally have
useful feedback, be differentiated on an objective scale of
effectiveness, and lose tenure if they weren’t performing. Teachers
would be treated like other professionals and less like interchangeable
widgets.

Colorado’s law and similar ones in other states appeared to be sound,
research-backed policy formulated by education reform’s own "whiz
kids." We could point to Ivy League research
that made a clear case for dramatic changes to the current system.
There were large federal incentives, in addition to private philanthropy
fueled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, encouraging such
changes. And to pass these teacher-evaluation laws, we built a coalition
of reform-minded Democrats and Republicans that also included the
American Federation of Teachers. Reformers were confident we had a clear
mandate.

And yet. Implementation did not live up to the promises.

Colorado Department of Education data released in February show that the distribution of teacher effectiveness
in the state looks much as it did before passage of the bill.
Eighty-eight percent of Colorado teachers were rated effective or highly
effective, 4 percent were partially effective, 7.8 percent of teachers
were not rated, and less than 1 percent were deemed ineffective. In
other words, we leveraged everything we could and not only didn’t
advance teacher effectiveness, we created a massive bureaucracy and
alienated many in the field.

What happened?

"It was wrong to force everyone in a state to have one 'best' evaluation system."

First, the data. We built a policy on growth data that only
partially existed. The majority of teachers teach in states’ untested
subject areas. This meant processes for measuring student growth outside
of literacy or math were often thoughtlessly slapped together to meet
the new evaluation law. For example, some elementary school art-teacher
evaluations were linked to student performance on multiple-choice
district art tests, while Spanish-teacher evaluations were tied to how
the school did on the state’s math and literacy tests. Even for those
who teach the grades and subjects with state tests, some debate remains
on how much growth should be weighted for high-stakes decisions on
teacher ratings. And we knew that few teachers accepted having their
evaluations heavily weighted on student growth.
Second, there has been little embrace of the state’s new
teacher-evaluation system even from administrators frustrated with the
former system. There were exceptions, namely the districts of Denver and
Harrison, which had far fewer highly effective teachers than elsewhere
in the state. Both districts invested time and resources in the
development of a system that more accurately reflects a teacher’s impact
on student learning. Yet most Colorado districts were forced to create
new evaluation systems in alignment with the new law or adopt the state
system, and most did the latter. This meant that these districts focused
on compliance (and checking off evaluation boxes), rather than using
the law to support teacher improvement.
Third, we continue to have a leadership problem. Research shows that
teacher evaluators are still not likely to give direct and honest
feedback to teachers. A Brown University study on teacher evaluators
in these new systems shows that the evaluators are three times more
likely to rate teachers higher than they should be rated. This is a
problem of school and district culture, not a fault with the evaluation
rubric.

Fourth, all of Colorado’s 238 charter schools waived out of the system.

We wanted a new system to help professionalize teaching and address
the real disparities in teacher quality. Instead, we got an 18-page
state rubric and 345-page user guide for teacher evaluation.
We didn’t understand how most school systems would respond to these
teacher-evaluation laws. We failed to track implementation and didn’t
check our assumptions along the way.

The new teacher-evaluation laws in Colorado and now 40 other states
seem a classic example of putting policy ahead of practice. Great in
theory, but unrealistic when it comes to implementation. The laws were
constructed around a particular set of assumptions about school district
capacity and commitment. We underestimated the propensity of districts
to morph "innovations" into existing practice and treat the new
evaluation laws as just one more compliance requirement. We also failed
to understand the political and district costs of tying such laws to
federal incentives, particularly given a strong ethos of local control
in many school districts, like most of those in Colorado.

As a longtime educator and education advocate, I got caught up in the
hubris. I helped construct and strongly supported the
teacher-evaluation law but didn’t anticipate how the state education
department and school districts would turn the law into practice. I
figured it would be difficult to end up with something any worse than
what was practice in 2009.

I believe the intention was right, but it was wrong to force everyone in a state to have one "best" evaluation system.
Going forward will be a challenge. Most teachers’ unions have not
supported these new evaluation laws and will look for any excuse to gut
them and go back to the world where there were no objective measures of
teacher effectiveness.
But we need to dig into what has happened—to understand what worked,
what did not, and why. It’s not too late to acknowledge our mistakes and
switch course. Instead of doubling down on ineffective policies, we
must confront the quagmire and work toward a better solution. We should
work back from the practice in our best schools and districts. Improving
education requires that push forward, and it won’t happen overnight.

It's about time the blogs are staring to talk about teacher evaluations again. I've been teaching for over 2 decades and now here in NYC I am going to get 4 observations which is the same amount as a rookie right out of college. Beyond peeved at this. Saddest thing is there is hardly any outrage over this in NYC. It is business as usual for the UFT.

Comments are welcome. Irrelevant and abusive comments will be deleted, as will all commercial links. Comment moderation is on, so if your comment does not appear it is because I have not been at my computer (I do not do cell phone moderating).

UFT Election Vote Comparison: 2004-10

A Personal Historical Perspective

Why Karen Lewis Reads Ed Notes

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Hedges says, There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history.

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

GEM's Julie Cavanagh Debates E4E member on NY1 on LIFO and Seniority

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy TysonProfessor of African American Studies and HistoryDuke University

A Familiar Voice on Unions

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike"- Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Outsource our children

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

Teacher Value-Added Data Dumping by Norm Scott

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

From Sharon Higgins

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Video of Chicago's George Schmidt and CORE Shredding Arne Duncan and the Chicago Corporate Model

Great Post on Teacher Quality at the Morton School

I'm very tired of the myth that schools are bursting at the seams with apathetic, unskilled, surly, child-hating losers who can't get jobs doing anything else. I recently figured that, counting high school and college where one encounters many teachers in the course of a year, I had well over 100 teachers in my lifetime, and I can only say that one or two truly had no place being in a classroom.